Policy Watch: Proposals for Time-Limited Welfare

This paper summarizes the Clinton administration's welfare reform proposal and views the available evidence on the effects of time-limiting cash assistance and requiring work among long-term Aid to Families with Dependent Children users. The reforms are designed to increase employment among Aid to Families with Dependent Children recipients. Given changes in the labor market for less-skilled workers, it is not clear that this will increase income among these families. The reform proposals would shift antipoverty spending toward work subsidies, child support collection efforts, and subsidized jobs that support mandated employment. It is unclear that this will produce either a cheaper or more effective antipoverty system than the current one.